DeAndre Jordan vows to protect Blake Griffin

The Los Angeles Clippers are tired of seeing Blake Griffin take hard fouls and have vowed to protect their All-Star forward if it continues.

“I feel like people are intentionally trying to hurt him,” Clippers center DeAndre Jordan said. “It’ll all come back around.”

Late in the fourth quarter of the Clippers’ loss to the Phoenix Suns on Thursday, Suns center Robin Lopez was ejected for a flagrant foul on Griffin. On Sunday, Griffin will see New Orleans Hornets center Jason Smith on the court for the first time since Smith was ejected and suspended two games for a flagrant foul on Griffin in the fourth quarter of their game last month.

The criticism of Griffin and his teammates in the past is they haven’t done enough to retaliate after those hard fouls.

“If Blake gets fouled, I can’t go punch someone in the nose,” Jordan said. “We can’t do that but throughout the course of a game, other fouls happen to other players on the opposite team and if they happen to be hard fouls, they happen to be hard fouls. We’re going to protect our teammates; it doesn’t matter who it is.”